It is well known in motor vehicles to provide an air bag restraint system for protection of a vehicle occupant. The air bag restraint system includes an air bag module located beneath the surface of the instrument panel.
Air bag modules have been developed for assembly in a modular form. A common type of air bag module includes an inflator, a housing for holding the inflator and including an air bag deployment opening, and an air bag normally stored in a folded condition within the housing near the opening. The housing is normally made of sheet metal and, during vehicle assembly, the entire module is attached via the housing to the instrument panel support structure located beneath a cover door formed in or mounted on the upper or rearward surface of the instrument panel in front of a passenger seat.
The cushion is normally positioned atop the inflator near the opening in the housing, so that, upon the vehicle experiencing a predetermined change in velocity, the inflator discharges gas to inflate the air bag for deployment through the opening and for forcibly opening the cover door.
As an alternative to these modules, some vehicles are designed to incorporate the housing as an integral part of the instrument panel support structure. This enables the use of a simplified air bag module which does not include the housing. Such a simplified module in current use is known as a "soft pack" module and comprises an inflator, a skeletal inflator support and a restraint cushion which lies atop the inflator and is held in place by a cover.
The prior art includes simplified modules in which the inflator is directly connected to the housing by insertion through a side opening included in the housing. In other simplified modules, the inflator is operatively connected by a skeletal inflator support to the housing adjacent a bottom housing opening. These arrangements require that manufacturing operations be performed on the housing to provide either a side opening or a bottom opening to accommodate connection of the inflator to the housing. Access to perform these manufacturing operations can be difficult when the housing is provided as an integral part of the instrument panel support structure. In addition, assembly of the inflator to the integral housing via a side or bottom opening may be difficult due to limited access underneath the instrument panel support structure.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved simplified air bag module subassembly which holds the inflator, which is subassembled independent of the housing and preferably without the use of fasteners, and which enables facile installation of the air bag module subassembly into the housing.